A research team based at the University of Georgia will be studying the transmission of the White Pox pathogen from humans to corals:
The spread of lethal diseases from animals to humans has long been an issue of great concern to public health officials. But what about diseases that spread in the other direction, from humans to wildlife? A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Georgia has just been awarded a five-year $2 million Ecology of Infectious Diseases grant from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health to study the first known case of such a “reverse zoonosis” that involves the transmission of a human pathogen to a marine invertebrate, elkhorn coral.
White pox disease has devastated coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and Florida Keys, and is believed to be responsible for much of the coral reef loss there since 1996. White pox disease is caused by a human strain of the common intestinal bacterium Serratia marcescens, which causes the hospital infection serratiosis. Historically, many emerging human diseases, such as AIDS and Ebola, have come from the natural world. The researchers are concerned that the transmission of Serratia marcescens from humans to elkhorn coralmay indicate the beginning of a new phenomenon of diseases jumping from humans to wildlife.
The UGA team will investigate the mechanisms of transmission of white pox disease and the factors that drive its emergence in marine animals. “This bacterium has jumped from vertebrate to invertebrate, from terrestrial to marine, and from anaerobic to aerobic environments,” said James W. Porter, associate dean of the Odum School of Ecology and the team’s leader. “Triple jumps like this are rare.” Understanding the modes of transmission will allow the scientists to attempt to predict future impacts of the disease and to begin to develop effective control strategies.
The scope of the team’s research will extend beyond gaining an understanding of the impact of white pox disease on elkhorn coral and how to counter it. The most likely source of the pathogen for coral reefs is under-treated human sewage, so the study will also explore the intersection of public health practices and environmental health outcomes.
“This investigation addresses not only environmental protection, but also the socio-ecological determinants of coastal zone protection,” said Porter. “This includes the cost of wastewater treatment infrastructure. Given a reliance on tourism by most Caribbean countries, this study addresses a disease system that is of great economic importance and public health concern to developing nations.”
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Understanding the transmission process is critical, but Porter said that the study has wider implications. “By incorporating the role of land use practices and water quality into our environmental models of disease prevalence and transmission, this project will have particular significance for sustainable development activities and coastal-zone carrying capacity studies worldwide,” he said. “The modeling element of this study connects disease transmission with water quality, climate variability and patterns of human population density. We expect to show that if you upgrade land-based wastewater disposal systems you improve survival of economically important natural resources such as coral reefs.”
Read more in the complete article at FirstScience.com.
